Listening Notes: Special Y

With two days left in January 2026, I plan to spend them reviewing releases by artists/bands whose names start with Y and Z. Today, it’s Y first.

What’s on the list? Check them out!

Yaw Evans – Memories of Now (2020)

73%

Yaw Evans comes from the UK electronic scene with a hip-hop flavor on “Respect Yeah Yeah” and “Lion Paw.” After that, the EP title track functions like a beatless interlude, leading into techno/house territory on the final two tracks.

If I had to choose, “Respect Yeah Yeah” proves itself as a strong hook at the start of the release, while “512 (Live Jam)” closes it with laser-like sounds that I can imagine being quite engaging as well.

Years Passing – The More Beautiful Everything Is, the More It Will Hurt Without You (2012)

78%

Years Passing from Sweden presents an ambient style driven by guitar, leaning toward post-rock in the vein of Luke Pigott, Breath Before the Plunge, Matt Borghi, and perhaps also relevant to Carlos Ferreira. The atmospheric character here is still related to The American Dollar, but processed in a rawer way. There are moments of noise and field recordings, though the recording quality is still better than 7328.

Spoken-word audio samples, such as those in “Happiness,” clearly pull me in, while the rest requires more careful consideration. However, “Picking Shards,” being the noisiest track, is definitely at the very bottom for me.

Yenisei – The Last Cruise (2019)

77%

Yenisei is a post-rock band from Poland, sharing a label home with Distant Dream. The Last Cruise is their first album to feature cover art resembling a giant gate leading into light, typical of the late Mariusz Lewandowski’s work.

The track sequence does a good job of representing the cover image as a final journey. “Libra” works well as an emotional hook, followed by crescendo-driven tracks with fairly heavy climaxes—“Perseids” even sounds destructive at times. Overall, though, it stays firmly within post-rock territory, unlike Distant Dream, which is influenced by djent atmospheres.

Best tracks: Libra, Perseids, and Roads.

Yuki Noise Wall – The Yoko Files Vol. 1–3 (2023)

76%

Just from the name, it’s already obvious what kind of animanga-infused project this is. Yep: harsh noise wall.

I expected a barrage of raw, ear-shattering noise, but that’s not entirely the case. There are also ambient/dark ambient influences that soften the texture. The more extreme, noise-oriented tracks are “Yoko Cannibalizes Her Music Teacher” and “Yoko Breaks the Matrix.” The rest ranges from mediocre to relatively mild.

So it can be said to function more as noise ambient and isn’t all that terrifying. There’s even some consideration for tracks like “Yoko Relaxes on the Beach” as potential favorites.

Yuko_ – Shimakore Part 1 (2024)

77%

Ah, breakcore…

One of those scenes heavily influenced by animanga and memes, making it feel like a doujin/otaku product. Most of the players are based on SoundCloud, which adds to its sense of exclusivity. The same goes for Yuko_. The main inspiration clearly comes from Yoshida Yuuko in the series Machikado Mazoku (The Demon Girl Next Door), which is then packaged into this album.

As a genre that typically grabs samples from everywhere to create a kind of mashcore, Yuko_ may also use some dialogue from the anime—but unfortunately, the only sample I recognize is a clip from Vtuber Filian’s stream on “How to Talk to Short People,” which clearly comes off as a joke or meme. The repeated dialogue between two characters in “1–7” is fairly funny, especially with the response “Sonna koto nai yo.” Still, it might get boring if I keep it in a playlist. There are also some genuinely good Japanese songs sampled here, such as in “Fairy from Forest” and “Runner’s High.”

So perhaps the most likely tracks to enter my favorites playlist are “How to Talk to Short People” and “Fairy from Forest.” The rest need more consideration.

Yung Moto & Kyar – Neo-Barna EP (2022)

70%

Back again with Kyar! Damn it!

This Barcelona-based unit had previously done a split with his partner, Yung Moto. Kyar still delivers hard, acidic bass, making the music feel suitable for an urban racing game soundtrack—although the repeated sampled words in “Severe” are rather nauseating. Still, I suppose that’s already a hallmark of acid techno and related genres. Meanwhile, Yung Moto plays things lighter, with a more noticeable atmospheric feel despite sharing the same acid elements. The weight of his drum beats stands out more clearly on “Acidstars – B.”

So it’s already clear which option I’ll take: Yung Moto – “Acidstars – A.”